Washington, DC ─ Today, following continued international outrage over a photo of a Chinese woman forced to abort her child at seven months of pregnancy, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser called on President Obama to condemn China’s One-Child Policy and immediately cut off funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) through an Executive Order. In his 2012 budget, President Obama requested $47 million for the organization, which helps to implement and enforce China’s coercive family planning program.
“The photo of Feng Jianmei and her dead child reveal the absolute horror resulting from China’s One-Child Policy, government-forced abortion, and gender selection,” said Dannenfelser. “President Obama must immediately condemn China’s routine violations of the dignity of women and children and cut off U.S. taxpayer funding of the UNFPA, which helps to implement these atrocities.
“By sending millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars per year to the UNFPA, we are made complicit in the death of Feng’s child. What’s more, we are effectively sabotaging the efforts of human rights activists like Chen Guangcheng who are fighting desperately to protect Chinese women and children. Women in China and around the world deserve better from President Obama and the United States. We must stand up for them.”
Both Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush cut off funding to the UNFPA during their administrations. In 1993, President Bill Clinton resumed funding for UNFPA, but for fiscal year 1999 signed a foreign aid appropriations bill that zeroed out funding for UNFPA. Funding to UNFPA was again completely cut off under President George W. Bush. In 2008, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell explained: “UNFPA’s support of, and involvement in, China’s population-planning activities allows the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion. Therefore, it is not permissible to continue funding UNFPA at this time.”
President Obama resumed U.S. taxpayer funding of UNFPA in 2009. From 2009 to 2011, $145 million has been appropriated for UNFPA. Most recently in his 2012 budget, President Obama requested $47 million for the organization.